The Auburn running back didn’t do anything totally crazy, like guarantee a 150-yard day or a victory, but he sounded totally convinced that the Tigers can do to the Tide what they did to Georgia, Texas A&M, etc., etc., etc.

As the best running back on the best running team in college football, big boy division, Mason is supposed to believe Auburn can pound the ball on the ground against everyone from the Steel Curtain to the Doomsday Defense.

But given the quality and pedigree of the next opponent, he and his teammates would be better served keeping their confidence to themselves.

Not Mason. The most underrated running back in the nation couldn’t help himself. He answered a question on the subject the way he hits a hole. Head on.

Asked if he was confident that Auburn can run the ball against Alabama and its elite rushing defense, Mason said, “I’m pretty confident. We’ve been running it all year.”

True fact, but raise your hand if you heard those words and flashed back to Bo Wallace. The Ole Miss quarterback was pretty confident before the Rebels played Alabama. He was foolish enough to put that confidence into words.

“Yeah, I think we can put points on them,” Wallace said. “I think we can put points on anybody.”

Oops. Final score: Alabama 25, Ole Miss 0.

It should be said at this juncture that Wallace isn’t Nick Marshall and Ole Miss isn’t Auburn. Alabama hasn’t faced an unstoppable force like the Auburn running game.

The reverse is also true. Auburn hasn’t run into an immovable object like the Alabama rushing defense.

Some things should go without saying. Like the way Mason expressed his excitement that his dad, a member of the hip-hop group De La Soul, will be in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, the first game he’s been able to attend all season.

Words won’t decide the Mother of All Iron Bowls, but if we’ve learned anything about this Alabama team, you poke this anaconda at your own peril.

Alabama players, no doubt with encouragement from their coaches, are masters at finding motivational needles in the haystacks of positive publicity they receive. Quarterback AJ McCarron seethed because Tennessee took to calling Alabama “the red team.” Defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan took exception to Wallace suggesting that Ole Miss would score.

“We felt as if he was calling us out,” Pagan said.

He really wasn’t, and neither was Mason, but that’s not the way the Alabama players see it after they’re shown it by their coaches. By providing a couple of honest and straightforward answers Tuesday, Mason may have made his job just a little bit harder come Saturday.

The Tigers may be up to the task because this is a different Auburn team, but it’s the same old Alabama. Now, only angrier.